Friday, 18 October 2013

Summary: Aquaponic system bio-filter crash
likely caused by chloramine poisoning of bacteria, which then led to buildup of
high levels of ammonia. Subsequent treatments to reduce ammonia in the system
ultimately proved ineffective. Follow us through our trials and tribulations as
we tried to avert an aquaponist’s nightmare scenario.

Chapter
2: Aquaponic System on Life Support

Days passed and the condition of our system’s
water was no better—ammonia levels persisted at 8ppm or beyond and pH hovered
around 7.2. We had done everything that was expected in an ammonia emergency:
we discharged the ammonia rich system water and replaced it with dechlorinated
fresh water, reduced ammonia production by starving the tilapia, and cleared
all possible dead zones by cleaning every surface where algae and decaying
biomatter may have been present. Dissimilation was unlikely given the adequate
dissolved oxygen levels throughout this whole period. The number of treatment
options we could conjure became limited. To add to our despair, the
psychological and physical stress got to our fish and a couple of our resident tilapia
jumped out of their home only to suffocate on the cold concrete floor. It seemed
evident we had a biofilter crash and we were well on our way towards a total
system crash.

Even though the situation looked bleak we
recognized our responsibility to maintain the safety and security of our system
and all her residents, the plants and the tilapia. Thus, we returned to the
metaphorical drawing board to draft another strategy to save our system. As an
interim measure, we broke the system’s main water flow into two separate water
flow cycles: one that only recirculates the fish water and one that only
recirculates the water in the plant bed. This way we would be able to rebuild
our beneficial bacteria colonies by rapidly raising the pH in the plant bed
without the nascent beneficial bacteria colonies being washed away from rapid
water changes that were necessary for the tilapia’s survival.

In addition, we added water dechlorinator and
bacterial solution to our system in hopes to cycle our system quicker. Once the
conditions in the plant bed improved, we would reconnect the fish system to the
plant bed. But only time would tell if our plan would come to fruition… Previous Chapter